


we'll get it together, we'll get it all done

by CallicoKitten



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Character Study, Gen, Kink Meme, dorks in space, i guess sort of?, there's not much of a plot here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 17:21:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2118330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallicoKitten/pseuds/CallicoKitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>See, the thing is no one seems to get the whole soul thing. The whole <em>don't you dare frigging touch her</em> thing. It's not like Peter's surprised by this, Yondu schooled good on all things daemon, it's just that you'd think after the first time he shot a guy point blank for reaching out to grab her the word would get around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll get it together, we'll get it all done

**Author's Note:**

> for the guardians kink meme : http://guardian-kink.livejournal.com/1806.html?thread=18446#t18446 (sorry about the ugly ass link I'm posting from an ipad~)
> 
> As usual unbeta'd and since it was written on the ipad there might be some bizarre spelling/grammar errors that have sprung up. Like, for example it keeps changer commas to exclamation marks for no godly reason? Whatever.
> 
> Note on Peter's daemon form at the end

Seren settles the day he leaves Earth. Not that Peter notices right away because, you know, _kidnapping._

She looks just like his Mom's and Peter's never been able to figure out whether it's a comfort or not.

He remembers watching Darek vanish. It's slow, he's been trailing golden dust behind him for days, sending little swirling clouds of it up around him every time he shifted. At the end he's barely holding on, he's almost see-through and when Seren clambers up on to the blankets to curl beside him (before they shut down, before they _refuse_ ) Peter knows she's too afraid to touch him just in case he breaks apart. 

"Peter," his mother rasps, "Peter, take my hand." And Darek's on her lap straining, trembling, desperately trying to hold himself together. His dark fur is too bright, his tiny body looks more fragile than ever and they're all just _standing there_. His granddaddy, serval daemon sat stoically beside him, the nurses, the doctors, his mom's best friends, they're all just _there_ and his mom is _dying_ -

"No," Seren whimpers. 

Peter squeezes his eyes shut and then it happens.

The machines start screaming and his mom is still. On her chest Darek sighs before bursting apart.

Peter runs.

\--

It takes some getting used to, the whole people are seemingly the only beings in the entire frigging universe with daemons thing.

"Not to mention the complete _lack of common decency_ ," Seren grumbles.

See, the thing is no one seems to get the whole soul thing. The whole _don't you dare frigging touch her_ thing. It's not like Peter's surprised by this, Yondu schooled good on all things daemon, it's just that you'd think after the first time he shot a guy point blank for reaching out to grab her the word would get around.

"See, Ser," he says, one night when they're crouched in some ruins on a planet neither of them can pronounce, listening to a group of very, very angry Skrulls search for them. "If you were something bigger or scarier this wouldn't keep happening."

Seren rolls her eyes, perched atop his knees, "If I were something bigger you would have died a long time ago."

"Nu-huh," he protests. "You could actually be _useful_ for once. You know, do some heavy lifting, earn your keep."

"That's what _you're_ for," she says, twitching her whiskers. "Besides, one of us has to come up the plans dumbass." 

"Yeah, this was a great plan, Seren."

"Hey, this only went south on us because _you_ decided to touch the thing that I absolutely told you not to touch." 

Okay, so maybe this ones on Peter but still, it would be nice to have a daemon that could at least _look_ intimidating.

\--

She misses it more than Peter does, Earth he means. Even when Peter's just starting to find his feet amongst the Ravagers (they have things like _ray guns_ and he's living in a _spaceship_ , he's definitely had this fantasy more than once) she's still silent and bitter.

If he lets her she'll stay under their bunk all day, curled around the unopened, neatly wrapped present. 

He crawls under there with her sometimes, lies silently beside her and all she ever says is, "I want to go home."

Most days he'll nod, stroke her fur and wait for the tension in her tiny body to lessen a little. Some days he'll be too tired too lie. Earths gone, at least to them. There's nothing much there for them now. Their grandad, sure, but also things like school and maths and the kids that liked to beat on him and Mom's -

He'll curl his fists and she'll shudder at his anger, at his sorrow.

"This _is_ home now," he'll say, thinking of Yondu teaching him how to shoot a and their crowded bunk room and the fact that even though he's completely different to any of the Ravagers he never feels alone. Not anymore. 

\--

Gamora is strangely taken with Seren, Peter has noticed. More so than anyone else in the team at least. 

The first thing Rocket says to her is in the prison, in the cell they're apparently all meant to share. Peter normally wouldn't mind this, he's usually all for the whole dog pile thing but usually his partners are less, uh, terrifying and usually Seren has somewhere away from the mass of bodies to go. 

"So, Quill," Rocket says, conversationally. "What's with the rat?" 

"She's not a rat -" Peter begins but he's cut off by Seren uncurling from his throat to stare Rocket in the eyes and scoff, "That's rich coming from _you_." 

Things don't go well after that.

Drax, on the other hand, merely decrees her as impractical and moves on with his life.

("I'll show him _impractical_ ," Seren mutters, later. She's resting on his chest while they pretend to sleep in the _Milano_.

Peter chuckles, stroking her golden-red fur absentmindedly, "What does that even mean?" 

She nips at his fingers and refuses to talk to him the whole rest of the night.)

Groot doesn't really seem to find it that odd that Peter's inseparable from a talking glorified rat for obvious reasons. 

Seren isn't too keen on any of them, either. She's always been more of a _just me and you, Peter,_ and Peter's usually a-okay with that. It means no sharing of the money or treasure or whatever the hell else there is out there _and_ it means no having to come up with awkward excuses about why no one can touch Seren or why she can't go too far from him or why if she dies, he dies. 

Rocket, so far, has tried to touch her, shoot her and asked a bunch of annoying questions that made Seren want to tear his throat out with his tiny teeth. Then there's the whole kidnapping thing which really got them into this whole mess and it's not that she _doesn't_ want to save the galaxy or anything, it's just that she'd rather have come into this on her own rather than being kidnapped and promptly arrested and thrown into the same prison that - _that_ had happened. 

So, it's not been great, what with Rocket and Seren griping at each other and Seren insisting that _there are plenty of other green girls out there, Peter, we can do this ourselves, just take the orb and get us the hell away from these morons._

Gamora though, Gamora is fascinated.

She doesn't say anything until they reach Knowhere, while they're waiting for their connection to turn up. The _Milano's_ only really built for one so it's a little cramped and they're all staying in the same room, mostly because none of them trust each other enough to be sure that one or more of them won't swipe the orb and run. It's just him and her, god knows where the others are but the orb is safe in Peter's pocket.

"I heard a strange thing about Terrans," she says tracing the patterns on the sheets. Peter let her have the bed because he's a gentleman. He and Seren are sprawled on the floor in a pile of cushions and on very old beanbag. It might actually be more comfortable than his mattress.

 _Some gentleman,_ Seren murmurs from pillow the beside his head.

"Thanos once told me that your kind wear their soul on the outside," she's watching him closely. It's not a question, more a challenge, Peter thinks. 

He turns his head to glance at Seren, who shrugs, flicking an ear.

It's not something they like to advertise, for the most part they're happy to let people believe Seren's just another talking animal. Most people don't know much about Terrans, they're not interesting or influential enough for that, most people have only heard horror stories about explorers heading to Earth and vanishing. Humans are feared in some parts of the galaxy but Peter's pretty sure if the known galaxy found out about daemons that would all change. 

"Keep her hidden," Yondu had told them, over and over. "Keep her safe, boy, you hear? 'Cos folks out there ain't as understanding as we are. If they learn what she is they'll use her against you."

And it's happened before.

 _Do you trust her,_ he asks, silently.

His daemon glances at Gamora briefly, then she shuffles closer so they're nose to nose and Peter has his answer.

He turns back to Gamora, "That's true." 

She arches a brow and turns to look in Seren's direction. Seren, in all her scruffy glory, stares stonily back. 

"She is," Gamora begins but then she pauses. _Unimpressive_ , Peter thinks. That's what Yondu had called her. _Small, weak, mangy_. "Beautiful," she finishes with a smile. 

Peter lets out a surprised burst of laughter, "You think _she's_ beautiful?" 

Gamora looks slightly confused, as though she can't quite tell whether Peter's joking or not, "She is very slender," Gamora says, "so is good for sneaking and retrieving small objects. She is small but well muscled so she is deceptively strong, her teeth are sharpe and her fur is wonderful colour. She is very suited to you." 

"Well I'm glad _somebody_ noticed," Seren says, clambering across Peter's chest and standing up on her hind legs to peer at her. "I like her, she can stay."

Gamora laughs and it's one of the most beautiful things Peter's ever heard.

\--

 _The thing_ happens the first time he gets arrested. He's eighteen, he's being sent down and Yondu's scarpered. It's ever prison cliche he heard as a kid rolled into one.

He's being processed by the nova corps, luckily the guard booking him in doesn't seem motivated enough to try and separate him and Seren, or maybe he's just worried about losing his fingers because of the amount of hissing and spitting she's doing. They get filed separately, Seren gets classified as a "lesser mammal of higher intelligence" and she's not too impressed by it.

Yondu's the only one who knows she's a daemon. The only one who knows she's his soul. 

Unfortunately, this means the guards don't bat an eyelid when a prisoner snatches her off his shoulder.

Peter's knees buckle.

He's never felt anything like this.

It's excruciating, it's blinding, it's every fibre of his being screaming _wrong, wrong, wrong._

There's a strange noise coming from his mouth, it's a garbled stream of _no's_ and _please_ and _SerenSerenSeren_.

"Peter, get up!" She's yelling, he can feel her fighting, wriggling out of grasping hands, teeth sinking into flesh, "Peter! Peter! Peter!" 

He's going to throw up.

Or die.

Or both.

No one could survive this.

_No one._

And then it's over, she's free and she's in his arms, tearing through the fabric of his prison jumpsuit and pressing herself as close to him as possible and they're crying - they're both crying - but she's back and she's _here_ and she's mumbling, "Never again, don't let that happen again. Never." 

When he opens his eyes again there's a guard kneeling down, watching him. 

He sits up slowly, cradling Seren's trembling form to him. The prison hall is empty but for them.

"Kid," the guard says, "What the _hell_ was that."

It takes a while for Peter's brain to catch up, to cut through the litany of _never again, never again, never again_. "I... She's my..." He's at a loss.

The guard shifts so he can sit more comfortably and rubs the back of his neck. "You know, my father used to tell me that every living thing in the galaxy has a soul but that not everyone's soul is in the same place."

Peter blinks, "That," he murmurs. "Yeah, that."

The guard takes one last look at him, frowning to himself, "I'll make a note in your file. This won't happen again under our watch, you can be sure of that."

Peter wants to tell him not to, but he's just too damn tired.

\--

The Collector hums to himself, "Remarkable, a Terran daemon. I never thought I would see one in the flesh. Or Dust, should I say?"

Seren, on Peter's shoulder, bristles.

"Is it true that if I were to kill her you would drop dead too? And vice versa?"

Peter sets his jaw. 

"Why in the hell would that happen?" Rocket interjects.

"Don't you know?" The Collector smirks, "A daemon is the human equivalent of a soul."

Rocket stares, " _That's_ your soul?" He repeats slowly. "That tiny, furry, long rat- thing is your _soul_?" He bursts into laughter and Peter all but shoots him in his dumb raccoon face.

"I am Groot," Groot says thoughtfully.

\--

Seren's fur is lighter than Darek's. 

Darek's had been a smooth rich brown that held a thousand different shades only revealed when the sunlight hit his fur from the right angle. Peter had the crayola box of 120 crayons when he was a kid and even then he couldn't name all the colours in Darek's coat.

That didn't stop him and Seren from trying though.

Seren's fur is a golden colour. Like Darek's was at the end.

\--

"So," Rocket says as they take off from Xandar. He's clutching Groot's pot to him. "Since we all gave to live with your little soul-rat, I figure now's the best time for you to lay down the ground rules." 

"Well for starters," Seren snaps, from her place on the dashboard. "You can stop talking about me like I'm not here and stop asking _him_ about _me_. I'm smarter than he is, anyway. _Way_ smarter."

"Well, _excuse me_ ," Rocket says, but he's smiling a little and Drax chuckles, "She is a very worthy soul. What manner of creature is she?"

Peter glances at him, "She's a weasel. We have them on Earth." 

Drax frowns, "I have heard you use this word before. You said you could _weasel_ your way out of many things. Is this a Terran metaphor?" 

Peter chuckles, "Yeah, something like that."

"It is because weasels are sneaky," Gamora says. "Much like her Terran. The form the daemon takes is intended to reflect the Terran's nature."

"So, what you're saying is Quill is really an overgrown rat on the inside?" Rocket says with a smirk. 

"Hey - " Peter begins but Gamora cuts him off, "Yes, Rocket, that is essentially what Seren's shape means."

Rocket sniggers and nudges him, "Guess we've got more in common than I thought, huh, Quill?" 

Seren actually laughs and it catches Peter by surprise. She never laughs, not unless Peter's done something spectacularly stupid (so, pretty often actually now that Peter thinks about it) but now she's practically falling off the dash, she's laughing so hard.

Peter almost loses control of the ship because all he can feel, welling up in his chest, is her joy. 

He hasn't felt like this since before he left Earth. 

He reaches out to steady her and grabs at his hand with her paw, "I'm fine, I'm fine," she assures, a little breathlessly. 

"You sure?" He asks and she nods, eyes bright. 

"Did I break your little soul there?" Rocket asks, just as Drax says, "I have wondered often, since meeting you, my friend, what shape my soul would take." He sits back and thoughtfully. "I once visited Asgard, a truly wonderful world, have any of you been?"

"To the planet of the high and mighty _Gods_? No thank you," Rocket mutters.

"They have a creature there called the bildshnipe, it is truly magnificent. The Asgardians dislike them because of their propensity for destruction but I admire their strength."

"Sounds like you all right, big guy," Rocket says.

\--

"So, I've decided," Seren says, one cramped night on the Milano. "That these losers aren't too bad."

They still all sleep in one room, Drax is on watch duty, Gamora's on the bed as usual and he, Seren, Rocket and Groot are on the floor. It's actually gotten to the point where he can't sleep if one or more of them aren't there, it's pretty pathetic, if he's honest. 

"You only just decided that?" Rocket mutters sleepily from somewhere by Peter's feet. "Well, guess what little missy, I still have decided if I like _you_." 

Seren laughs sleepily, "Yeah, Peter, I like them. Makes me think of home."

It registers somewhere within Peter that she's not talking about Earth anymore. He smiles, reaches out for her on her pillow and scoops her up and places her on his chest, "Yeah. Yeah."

**Author's Note:**

> Seren is a welsh name meaning star (because cliche) and I picked a weasel for her form because I wanted something small enough that she wouldn't get inadvertently touched everywhere, what with the whole secret soul thing going on.


End file.
